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priestesses and the crowd behind them. In cooperation with the Archaeological
Department, we now open the secondary door to the ancient Stadium which is
used by the public in order to reach a special enclosure, while only the priestesses
enter through the main gate so that you see no one else but them during the ceremony.
4. At the lighting of the Flame for the Melbourne Olympics, as the skies were
overcast, Professor Peristerakis managed to create the Flame by means of a "che
mical lightning" as the press reported at the time.
Today, we insist on the sun and since there may be clouds on the particular
day of the ceremony, we light the flame some time when the sun is shining and
keep it, night and day in safety lamps, so that if the sky is cloudy, the choreographer
will arrange the ceremony so that the Flame is taken from the lamp which
was lit with the rays of the sun, as recorded on video tape.
5. Finally, because there have been problems with the torch provided by the
organizers of the Games, since 1992 we have used a special torch for the lighting,
made of solid silver and in the shape of a Greek column. A torch which is the
exact replica of ours can be seen at the Museum in Lausanne.
To complete the presentation on the lighting ceremony and the Flame Relay,
we shall briefly see what has happened from 1936 until today, starting with the
summer Games.
• 1936 has been extensively analyzed as regards the history and philosophy
underlying the event. The flame was lit on July 20, 1936, at 12.00 noon. The cho
reography was simple with the priestesses gathering around the mirror from which
Pratsika took the flame and transferred it to a receptacle held by Dora Loundra and
from there to the first runner. The Flame reached Athens via Tripoli, Argos and Co
rinth and from there, via Eleusis, Thebes, Delphi, Lamia, larisa, Kozani, Verroia,
Gida, it came to Thessaloniki and then via Serres to the Bulgarian border. After
crossing Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia it entered
Germany on August 1. 1936 runners were used and the programme of the Torch
Relay was strictly observed.
• In 1948, the lighting ceremony took place on July 17 in the temple of Hera;
the high priestess was the Greek tourist guide from Pyrgos, Martha Angelakopou
lou. Unfortunately, because Greece was torn by civil war during that year, the
priestesses could not come to Olympia and this is why Martha Angelakopoulou
had to be used for the ceremony, which was understandably very simple, without
any priestesses or choreography.
The Flame was carried by flame relay to the port of Katakolo, near Pyrgos.
From there it travelled on the warship Hastings to Lefkimi, Corfu. From there it was
carried by flame relay to the city of Corfu and then on a frigate of the British Navy,
Whitesand Bay, to Bari in Italy.
Carried by 762 runners, each of whom covered a distance of one mile, the
Flame reached Switzerland on July 23, 1948 and on the evening of the 25th to the
26th of July it was in France and the next evening in Luxembourg. At 10.30 on the
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